Ocean of sound

Podcasts are a fairly huge part of my media consumption habits, and its rare that I go a day without listening to them. A fair proportion of those are time-shifted radio programs, and I also listen to more than my share of fairly straightforward “people talking” podcasts on pretty much any subject that interests me.

As a learning technologist, I do keep an ear out for topical podcasts relevant to my work. In addition to Brenna’s You Got This! and Gettin’ Air with Terry Greene, I usually catch episodes of a few tech-oriented shows in my weekly diet, most of which follow a similar interview format. Techtonic with Mark Hurst is a show on my favourite radio station WFMU, and usually features an interview with an author of a recent book on contemporary tech and culture, usually from a critical lens. There are No Girls on the Internet with Bridget Todd approaches a similar range of topics mostly through a feminist perspective.

As I ruminated on how I would approach this Journal entry, I gave some thought to a genre of listening that I have always enjoyed, but which has always intimidated me too much to try for myself. I guess we could call these audio documentaries, as they tend to be heavily researched, thoughtfully constructed and usually have at least some elements of noticeable production. You Must Remember This by Karina Longworth accurately describes its focus as “the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century” and has notched thirteen impressive seasons on a wide range of topics. A similar show on the dark and mythic stories around country music is Tyler Mahan Coe’s Cocaine and Rhinestones, which mixes twisted anecdotal episodes with more culturally analytic ones such as why Loretta Lynn’s song “The Pill” about birth control nearly derailed her career. A third show I highly recommend is Blowback, which has assembled impressively produced, entertaining, and highly critical accounts of the Iraq War and the Cuban Revolution. I think each of these shows use archival sounds and interviews in such a way that I can see them as models for scholarly audio work.

Another genre of podcasts that I find even more intimidating to imagine doing is the audio story, some of which are produced at a very high level. The Lovecraft Investigations re-stage H.P. Lovecraft stories as contemporary news documentaries and are quite artfully done. The Left Right Game is in my opinion not quite so well written, but the production from QCODE is next level, as is their offering Carrier. It’s a shame the BBC’s Stroma Sessions episodes are no longer available, as its combo of creepy narrative and an avante garde music theme is squarely in my personal sweet spot. This one rewards repeat listens. (There is a compiled version on the Internet Archive.)

I wonder if I have the gumption to assemble a narrative fictional documentary on contemporary ed tech? The subject offers all sorts of creepy potential.